Fire in the smoker

I've only got a couple smokes under my belt, both times were pork butt, so low temps. I was getting ready to throw some chickens in there so I filled my water tray, smoke tray with alder, turned my Smoke Vault to Med and left it for about 10 mins. Came back and the temp was up over 300, so I turned it down but the temp kept shooting up, so I opened the door to see all of my wood chips ablaze.

I know that I could soak the chips, but I've read that a lot of people don't prefer it so I just figured it wasn't necessary. Has anyone else had this problem?

Propane, correct? I have a GOSM the older brother to your smoker. Chips, dust don't work we'll because the smoke box is too close to the heat source, you either need big chunks, 3"-4" or you need to shield the little stuff from the heat more. When the chips ignite that's when you get the heat spikes.

Yeah, I'm using chips. I guess I need to get ahold of some chunks if I want to smoke at higher temps. I don't see an easy way to raise it. I think I can slide it in on top of the bracket instead of inside of it, that might give me a half inch or so.

s2k9k, no. This time I got them wet because I was trying not to ignite, and they didn't (so far). But on the couple of smokes that I've done, I haven't soaked them because a lot of people online say they prefer not to, and if I can remove a step, I will.

blodzoo one can full usually does the trick I get plenty of smoke all vents open all the way. I use to have extra cans ready but ended up burping smoke. try it with out food first, like I said plenty smoke. Wish I could take credit got the idea on the afterburner site and modified.

I am definitely sold on chunks over chips. As the chips burned off, I threw in a few chunks and now I'm getting rolling blue smoke instead of pluming white smoke.

I'm also sold on smoking in general. This is awesome. It might just be the adult beverages talking, but I think I've finally found my calling when it comes to cooking. A lot of my friends love cooking and I just never saw it before, aside from manning the grill (I have a few killer grilled chicken thigh recipes, if anyone's interested) but this smoking thing is something that I can really get into.